At 11:55 a.m. local time (6:55 p.m. UTC; 8:55 p.m. Italian time) on Saturday, July 1, the 52nd edition of the Transpacific Yacht Race (Transpac) also got underway for the multihull class, which joined the rest of the fleet already racing. From Pt. Firmin, Los Angeles, Giovanni Soldini and crewmates will sail Maserati Multi70 2225 miles to the finish line off Diamond Head, Honolulu, Hawaii, challenging the two American MOD 70s Argo, skippered by Jason Carroll and navigator Brian Thompson, and Orion, skippered by Justin Shaffer.
On the starting line, fairly typical conditions at Transpac were confirmed with weak SW winds at 7 knots. After all, just before reaching the start line, Giovanni Soldini had predicted it: “We will have a big wind hole for the first 10 hours. It will be very important to be able to get into the wind first in order to start across with a wind that will turn more and more stern in the following days. We will end up gybing coming over Hawaii.”
And for Soldini and his team it will be an obstacle race: “We will have to sail a fairly high course, at risk of collisions with floating objects (the course passes close to the Pacific Trash Vortex) and also from a technical point of view it will definitely be a tough race for us because we will not be flying. We had a customs problem with the support container and so we will not be able to count on the best performing set of sails and flying foils, and that is a pity because in the transoceanics they give their best. But as usual we will sell our skin dearly!”
Compared to the competitors, “Argo is definitely the fiercest. The team is very well run, they are already on the third generation of foils and the boat is on point because they have done a lot of research and development. Orion on the other hand is an original MOD70. The difference from us is in the sails because theirs are perfect and they are designed by the same designer as Zoulou, so they are very fast sails. Our competition sails unfortunately are also in the container, but we have a mainsail that was designed at the time just to fly so it will be seen. Overall it will be a super close race where tactics will count a lot.”
And a few hours after the start, Matteo Soldini relays the first updates: “All is well here, we are sixty miles past Catalina Island and sailing in the breeze with gennaker upwind: there are 5 to 8 knots of wind, and we are a couple of miles from Orion, which has expired on our bow. Argo, on the other hand, is about six miles downwind of us however ahead. There is heavy fog, it is quite cold, and there is a smell of lentils on board: our meal for today.”
Alongside Giovanni Soldini on Maserati Multi70 the team composed of Guido Broggi (ITA), Oliver Herrera Perez (ESP), Francesco Malingri (ITA), Francesco Pedol (ITA), Matteo Soldini (ITA) and Lucas Valenza-Troubat (FRA).
Maserati Multi70, the only Italian boat in the race, is participating in this competition for the third time after the 2017 and 2019 editions.
The Transpac fleet can be monitored on the YB system, which is updated any 4-hour up to 200 miles from the finish, when tracking will go live. You can follow the regatta at this link.
